Sustainable investing in big business

Some investors want to invest as sustainably as possible in companies listed on the stock-exchange. Triodos Bank offers its customers the opportunity to invest in many of the world’s most sustainable listed companies via positively screened Social Responsible Investment (SRI) Funds. Companies in these funds are carefully selected on their sustainable performance compared to their industry peers, and meet Triodos Bank’s minimum standards for investment. We also enter into a constructive dialogue about their sustainability practices with many of these companies.

Sustainable performance

Triodos Research uses a diverse range of indicators to assess the sustainability performance of listed companies, so the fund can determine how sustainable a company is compared to its peers.

The table below provides more detail. It compares the sustainability scores of the portfolios of Triodos’ two SRI funds - Triodos Sustainable Bond Fund and Triodos Sustainable Equity Fund, with the sustainability scores of the indices.

Sustainability scores

The scores are based on Sustainalytics ratings, using customised weight settings. For bonds, the sustainability scores relate to the non-sovereign constituents of the Triodos Sustainable Bond Fund portfolio and the index. Ratings are available for all the companies and institutions in the portfolio of Triodos Sustainable Bond Fund; for the index, approximately 90% of the constituents are covered in the rating. Sovereign bonds are not included in the scores given above. The portfolio of Triodos Sustainable Equity Fund consists of companies that offer sustainable products or services and companies that offer the highest degree of sustainability within their sector. The sustainability score of the Triodos Sustainable Equity Fund portfolio represents 95% of the invested assets in the portfolio. The companies for which no sustainability rating is available are classified as companies with sustainable products or services. The table shows the scores as per December 31, 2016.

Environment

72

62

+10

66

55

+10

Social

73

67

+6

62

58

+4

Governance

72

67

+5

69

63

+6

How we encourage greater corporate transparency

Transparency is key to sustainable finance. That’s why it is a core business principle of Triodos Bank. The Triodos SRI funds are amongst the most transparent in the sector according to the European Sustainable Investment Forum (Eurosif) and the United Nations office that oversees the United Nations Principles on Responsible Investment.

We are one of the few providers to report on our research methodology, our investment criteria, our full investment universe and the investment portfolio per fund. We tell you what guides us in our voting at shareholder meetings (proxy voting guidelines) as well as how we voted per company.